


Helpless

by clevernotbrilliant (clairevergreen)



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Gen, Horror, Major Character Injury, Suspense, car crash, slasher!au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-15 19:37:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12327483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clairevergreen/pseuds/clevernotbrilliant
Summary: When a surprise death rocks the little town of Arkadia, Clarke Griffin seriously debates her decision to come home for the summer. All she had wanted was a quiet and uneventful break to take her mind off of her cheating ex and the events of the past summer. As it becomes clear she and her friends are being targeted by a vengeful killer, she's forced to confront her own past and all the skeletons that come with it.





	Helpless

Even as she frantically tried to upload her last final of freshman year, Clarke Griffin couldn’t help but wish he didn’t have to go home. Not that she didn’t miss her friends and family and the thought of home cooked meals from someone other than her mother, but there was something about college that she didn’t want to give up, even if it was only for a few months. She had managed to cut her winter break as short as she reasonably could and skipped spring break completely, but now that summer was literally a day away, she had run out of excuses.

She glanced at her phone as the clock changed to 11:58am and went back to staring at the rainbow pinwheel of death that hovered over the submit button. Suddenly, her feet fell to the ground as the chair across from her was yanked out from under the table. She grabbed her computer to keep it from falling off the edge as she sat up to see who it was.

“Did it submit yet?” Harper asked as she passed over one of the two drinks in her hand. 

“What’d you think,” Clarke muttered, leaning back as she sipped on whatever Harper had order, wincing slightly at the unfamiliar flavor. She bit her lip as the clock ticked over to 11:59.

“And now you understand the pain of waiting til the lat second,” Harper said, grinning as she took a sip.

Clarke was about to answer when two more people sat down next to them. “What was that? Miss Perfect left an assignment until the last minute,” Monroe said as she set down her sandwich. 

“No, no, not just the last minute,” Harper said, stealing a chip off of Fox’s plate as she sat down beside Clarke. “She actually forgot the assignment until three hours ago.”

“Okay, hold up, we gotta document this,” Monroe said as she pulled out her phone to take a picture.

Clarke glared at her. “Shut up, this is—” She looked back at her screen and sat bolt upright, knocking into the table. “It uploaded. Oh, my god, it uploaded.” She frantically scrolled down to check the timestamp. “11:59:57!”

Fox clapped slowly as a few other people in the cafe looked their way. “Amazing,” she deadpanned, grabbing another chip off her plate. 

Clarke rolled her eyes and Harper cut in. “Alright, so,” she said, with a note of seriousness that Clarke knew held no actual value, “we are meeting up over the summer, no excuses.”

“Of course,” Monroe said, reaching over to steal a chip from Fox. “I need to see these famous Arkadia parties for myself.” Immediately, the smile slipped off Clarke’s face and she took another sip of her drink, gripping the cup tighter than she needed to. Monroe glanced over to Harper, but she had also gotten silent, staring down at her cup as she picked at the edge of the lid. “I mean, or not,” she said quickly, sharing a glance with Fox. “You could always come visit us up here.”

“Maybe finally get that cheating ex out of Clarke’s mind,” Fox teased, obviously trying to cut through some of the tension. 

Clarke, thankful for the distraction, jumped on the comment. “I thought we were done with that,” she said, finally looking up. 

“You thought that,” Fox said, tearing at her sandwich. “We, on the other hand, are still determined as ever to make it actually happen.”

“Guys, come on,” Clarke said, closing her laptop. “I’m taking time for myself. It’s only been a few months, I don’t want a relationship or anything right now.”

“No, no, not a relationship,” Fox said between bites of her sandwich. “You gotta hook up with someone, get him out of your system. Someone really hot—oh! I know, that cop whose little sister visited that one time. What was his name?”

“Bellamy Blake?” Harper asked, putting down her drink. “You want Clarke to hook up with Bellamy Blake?” There was a beat as the four of them looked at each other and then Harper burst out laughing, drawing even more stares. “Oh, my god, that’s a good one,” Harper managed to get out between breaths. “Oh, wow, that’s a good one.”

Monroe and Fox looked at each other before looking at Clarke. “Was it that bad a suggestion?” Fox asked as Harper tried to control her laughter. 

“He’s not exactly my type,” Clarke said, taking another sip of her drink.  _ That’s putting it mildly _ , she thought to herself as Harper finally controlled herself.

“Are you kidding?” Fox said. “That boy is everyone’s type.”

“Yeah, he thinks he is,” Harper said under her breath as she downed the rest of her drink. Clarke snorted into her drink, earning herself and eyebrow raise from Monroe.

“Okay, then what about that girl you almost hooked up with last semester?” Fox asked, seemingly hellbent on her mission. “Lexa, the one that you turned down cause it was too soon after Finn?”

“I’m pretty sure she transferred, didn’t she?” Monroe said. Clarke quickly looked down, but caught a glimpse of Harper’s expression and knew she had seen how she had reacted to just his name. 

“Oh, or I know, that girl Niylah who works at the bookstore,” Fox added. “She’s always had a thing for you, I can tell.”

“Okay, as fun as this has been, we gotta finish packing,” Harper cut in as Monroe and Fox continued throwing names out. She glanced at Clarke as she stood up, nodding her head towards the door. “Our room looks like a disaster area right now.”

“You mean your half of the room looks like a disaster area,” Clarke said as she shoved her laptop back in her bag, shooting Harper a grateful look. 

“Either way,” Harper said, rolling her eyes, “the room is a mess and we have to go. We’ll see you guys tomorrow, yeah?” 

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Monroe said, immediately getting up. She hugged Clarke first and then Harper. “Just text us in the morning.”

Fox walked around the table and reached forward to pull Clarke into a hug. “If you need anything, don’t be afraid to call,” she said into Clarke’s shoulder. “It’s not that long of a drive.” She pulled back after a few seconds and smiled. Fox quickly took a step back as Monroe all but tackled Clarke, making her promise to not leave without saying goodbye.

“See you guys,” Harper said, grabbing her ID card and bag as she tossed her cup towards the trash can. Clarke waved as they started to head towards the door.

“Thanks,” Clarke said once they were a few feet away, shifting her bag on her shoulder, “for cutting in.”

“Yeah, of course,” Harper said, tucking her ID card into her back pocket. They pushed through the doors and Harper glanced over at Clarke. “Are you okay?” she asked as they pushed through the doors, brushing some of her hair out of her face. “Not just the Finn stuff, but, uh, when Monroe mentioned the parties…”

Clarke rubbed the back of her neck and stared straight ahead as they walked down the nearly empty campus to their dorm. “Yeah, it’s just…weird to think it’s almost been a year,” she said, her fingers subconsciously tracing the scar on her neck.

“I know,” Harper said quietly and when Clarke looked over, she was tugging at the ends of her sleeves. As far as Clarke had seen, Harper had never seemed to react much to what had happened that night, but every now and then, she could catch a glimpse of it. 

Before she could hardly react, the moment was over and Harper was back to her normal, upbeat self. “But we just have to keep moving on, right?” she said, her voice just a little too upbeat not to be forced. She linked arms with Clarke and picked up the pace slightly. “Cause if I know Octavia and Jasper, there will probably be more than one chance to do that by the first weekend.”

Clarke laughed and, despite her better judgment, started to think that maybe going home wouldn’t be as bad as she had thought. 

  
  


***

 

The next morning went about as smoothly as Clarke had expected. She should have known better than to try to make a plan involving Harper, but she always held out hope that maybe one of them would work out. First, it was last minute packing, then last minute summer planning with Fox and Monroe (which she may have been guilty of encouraging), and then top it all off, there was a twenty minute manhunt for the car keys.

“Would you stop looking at your phone?” Harper said after they had been on the road for about thirty minutes, flipping on her signal to get into the next lane. “Come on, you didn’t even want to go home and now you’re worried about being late?”

Clarke rolled her eyes and tucked her phone back into her pocket. “My mom is still not convinced I’m actually coming home. She might just call the cops to track me down if I’m not back when I say I would be.”

“Yeah, okay,” Harper said sarcastically, quickly flicking on the signal again and squeezing between two cars to get onto the highway. 

“Harper, what the fuck?” Clarke said, gripping the door as Harper squeezed through an opening that was much to small to get onto the highway. 

“Do you want to get home or not?” Harper asked, ignoring the honking of the driver behind her.

“I’d like to do it in one piece,” Clarke answered, fishing her phone out of her pocket as it buzzed. Harper turned up the radio in response and started singing along at the top of her lungs. Clarke rolled her eyes as she opened the text.

_ What time are you getting in? _

Clarke smiled as she tapped out her response.  _ An hour or so if Harper doesn’t get us killed first. _

“Was that Octavia?” Harper asked, passing the car in front of them. 

Clarke nodded and was about to put her phone away as it buzzed again, this time flashing Monty’s name on the screen.  _ Have you guys left yet? _

“Were there plans that I forgot about it?” Clarke asked as she answered Monty.

“If you did, then so did I,” Harper said, glancing at her phone on the dashboard. She alternated looking between the phone and the road as she pulled down the notifications at the top of the screen. “Hey, can you see what Miller sent?”

Clarke leaned over pulling at her seatbelt a she navigated through Harper’s phone without closing out of Google Maps. “Uh, he wants you to check Twitter?” she said, already pulling up the app. She scrolled past all of the people from MWU celebrating the beginning of summer, stopping when she got to someone from back home. She froze as she read the tweet and then began frantically scrolling to make sure she wasn’t just seeing things. 

“Clarke, what’s up?” Harper asked, not taking her eyes off the road. 

Before she could answer, her phone lit up again, her ring tone cutting through the music. Immediately, she reached forward and shut off the radio as she answered. “Mom,” she said, still scrolling through Twitter.

“Clarke, honey,” her mom said and Clarke could hear how flustered she was, not to mention the various voices and sounds in the background. “Where are you?”

“About an hour out,” Clarke said quickly, clicking on one of the tweet. “Mom, is it true? What they’re saying?”

“Clarke, what’s happening?” Harper said, but Clarke waved her off. 

There was a brief pause on the phone before her mom answered. “Clarke,” she started and she could hear the hesitation in her voice. “I don’t know what you’ve heard—”

“It’s all over Twitter, Mom,” Clarke interrupted. Her phone buzzed against her cheek ad he pulled it away to see more messages from Octavia and Monty. “Look, just tell me if it’s true or I’ll hear it from someone else.”

Harper had taken the first exit and pulled over in a random parking lot to look through her phone. Clarke watched as her eyes got wide before she all but jumped out of the car, frantically dialing her phone.

“Yes,” her mom said, drawing Clarke’s attention back. “He was in an accident and—” She broke off and Clarke could hear her take a breath. “Clarke, Finn is dead.”


End file.
